Covers/own material:

Own, co-writers, and occasional covers

General comments:

At first her pop sound seemed indistinguishable from others in the genre to me. I thought she was another Juliana Hatfield or Frente, but gradually the individual and quirky nature of the sound and lyrics became apparent the more I listened. I realized her sound is more along the Cindy Lee Berryhill and suddenly, tammy! lines: humour and depth are both readily apparent after the first couple of listens. I probably had more pure fun playing Kim Fox's music than I did with any other artist this year. And I sang along most of the time—I don't usually do that. Delightful fun, but also with haunting emotional moments. (Neile)

Comments about live performance:

She was pretty entertaining, though her songs were kind of silly. Some of the lyrics really had me cracking up. The highlight of the evening was when she sang her single, "I Wanna Be a Witch", a cappella (sort of) to the sound of her chopping a log (yes, actually chopping a small log with a small hatchet, right there on stage). Apparently her boyfriend had given her a record of prison songs, where the only musical accompaniment is guys rustling their chains or chopping wood. Anyway, she apparently found it inspirational. Overall, she had a great personality, but I wasn't that impressed with her voice or her songwriting. Her piano playing was pretty good—much better than her guitar playing. (jjhanson@att.net)

I caught only a couple songs of hers, one was about vampires. She was on the Village Acoustic Stage [at Lilith Fair], and she was okay, nothing better. I didn't much like the sound of her keyboard, but she had a fairly pleasant voice and okay lyrics. Nothing special, though. (miazgama@pilot.msu.edu)

kim did a laura nyro cover which was earned her bonus points for me. her singing songwriting seemed a bit weak compared to everyone else around her, but i think there was an honesty freshness to her music that appealed to me. sort of reminded me a bit of jill sobule. (iflin@speakeasy.net)

Produced by:

Comments:

i had heard a couple of her songs by accident one evening last year when i caught the world cafe. thought they were okay. then chris beckwith's review above intrigued me. eventually found a used copy. not sure i agree with chris, since i don't think that tori and kim are similar enough to warrant such a comparison but the suddenly, tammy! inspiration makes perfect sense. nonetheless, it's a very fine album, especially for a debut. (woj@smoe.org)

This album has a distinctly unique voice, and Kim Fox is a wonderful songwriter. I recommend this album highly. (mundopax@ingress.com)

This album won me over big time. I listened to it a couple of times at a listening station and wasn't impressed, but when I found it available very cheaply used I figured I could afford not to be impressed. Well, the disc has grown on me—a surprising amount now. I've played it often enough that my partner is good and sick of it, but I'm not. It's fun and is a mixture of charming humour and some wonderfully haunting emotive moments. I don't think I've had as much fun singing along with an album in years. I agree with woj that it's a fine debut, and I'll definitely be looking for more by Kim Fox. (Neile)

Produced by:

Linus of Hollywood

Comments:

Alas, the quirkiness that I loved on the previous album is hidden here, and I really missed the haunting sense of loss and the stories of the previous album. The songs here are mostly pretty predictable pop love songs, and as such are of lesser interest to me than the work on her previous album which I grew to love so well. There are hints of all this here but it just doesn't stick with me. (Neile)

DISCLAIMER: Comments and reviews in the Ectophiles' Guide are excerpted from the ecto mailing list or volunteered by members of the list. They are the opinions of music enthusiasts, not professional music critics.

Entry last updated 2012-05-18 21:19:56.
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